Paul Fenton MBE, CEng, FIHEEM, a highly experienced estates and facilities professional and Chartered Engineer who has worked across both the NHS and commercial sectors in a varied 40-year career, took over as IHEEM's new President in December.

In the wake of lessons learned about existing healthcare infrastructure, its ability to cope with exceptional clinical demand and pressures over the past year, HKS Architects consider ‘the optimum model of hospital for pandemic preparedness.

David Merriman, and Matt Whiting, at Rada discuss where product and service innovations are moving for healthcare, ‘exploring the trends that have been accelerated, rather than redefined, by the coronavirus pandemic

CHES, organisers of the 2022 IFHE 2022 Congress – to be held alongside the CHES 2022 National Conference at the Westin Harbour Castle, Toronto, from 17-21 September 2022 – have extended the deadline for submission of abstracts to 30 June this year.

Medical Air Technology (MAT) is the main contractor on a current refurbishment project at Wansbeck General Hospital, which is seeing the turnkey upgrade of six operating theatres, including recovery, clean corridor, and adjacent auxiliary areas.

Graham Stanton, who chairs the IHEEM AE(D) Registration Board, and recently became a member of the Central Sterilising Club committee, discusses the recent re-establishment of the Decontamination Professional Expert Communications Forum (DPECF).

The Fire Safety advisor at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust has praised a software system that enables closer, more effective control of the Trust’s Fire Warden network.

Electrical safety and clinical care equipment specialist, Bender UK, has supplied critical power infrastructure valued at over £2 m to The Grange University Hospital, and is one of the highest-profile new healthcare facilities ever built in Wales.

Austco has installed its latest IP-based nurse call system, Tacera, in a form that incorporates a speech recognition feature – obviating the need for patients to press a button when they need help – at Thames Hospice's new facility near Maidenhead.

As global healthcare systems recover and learn from the effects of COVID-19, the focus is increasingly on creating more resilient estates for the future.

Anyone working in healthcare has their own experience from the COVID-19 outbreak, and especially its peak, but what was it like for those working behind the clinical care frontline in facilities management?

Technology company, IOBAC, is calling for help to explore the potential for Far Infrared (FIR) heating to help prevent and fight RNA viruses, including coronavirus (COVID-19), following its recent investigation into the availability of scientific studies on ‘the proven health benefits’ of FIR.

The company said: “This research unearthed a landmark pre-print study from En-Jing, Li (from the Office of Environmental Protection and Office of Radiation Protection, Peking) and Wei-Hong Huang (of the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology), published in February, ‘Instability of Nucleic Acids in Airborne Microorganisms under Far Infrared Radiation’. The study, which will potentially be published in a journal in June for peer review and analysis, investigated FIR radiation’s effect of on inhibiting airborne microorganisms.”

'Britain’s leading engineering brains' at Enginuity, (formerly Semta), an employer-led manufacturing and engineering skills body, with the support of the The Prince’s Trust, are 'harnessing the power of gaming' to identify talent via a non-academic route that the proponents say can ‘power the nation’s economic recovery when the lockdown is lifted’.

As refurbishments occupy a bigger proportion of the healthcare construction landscape, sensitive handling of works is more important than ever, and supplier relationships built on trust are essential, argues Chris Murphy, head of Operations at property maintenance and development specialist, Novus.

MTX will shortly complete a new 1,500 m2 Interventional Radiology Unit at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. Mounted on the roof of the existing Outpatients’ East building, close to the Emergency Department, the new ‘IRU’ will significantly increase the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NNUH)’s capacity to diagnose and treat vascular and other conditions using interventional radiology.

The Specialist Engineering Contractors’ (SEC) Group – representing the largest value sector in UK construction – has expressed ‘major concerns’ over the impact of COVID-19 on SMEs, which it says comprise 99% of firms in the construction industry.

These, it explains, relate to ‘sharp practices’, disruption to repair and maintenance contracts (which represent more than half of construction industry output), and ‘the weak balance sheets of the large tier 1 contractors, with implications for payment security along the supply chain’.

Al Rufaie, a medical electrical consultant with over 40 years’ experience in the electrical industry, takes a look at the history and international development of medical IT (isolated power) power systems.

The key role that the organisation plays as the regulatory body for the UK engineering sector, and some of the existing formal requirements for registration as an Engineering Technician, Incorporated, or Chartered Engineer, or Information and Communications Technology Technician, as well as the future of engineering education, and the need for the sector to ‘innovate to develop future engineers’, were the subject of a Healthcare Estates 2019 conference presentation by the Engineering Council’s CEO, Alasdair Coates, in October. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.

Schneider Electric, the specialist in ‘digital transformation’ in energy management and automation, has announced that it is to expand its UK manufacturing facilities in Scarborough and Leeds ‘driven by rising demand in renewable and green technologies’.

Eugene Conroy CEng, FIHEEM, MIET, managing director of consulting engineers, Eta Projects, reports on the personal experiences of the professional team in the delivery of the NHS Nightingale Hospital London.